2 Months Old

Well little Miss Maddie is officially 8 weeks old. We had her 2 month Dr. appointment on Friday and our little one is 'just beautiful' as the pediatrician said. Maddie is up to 9 lbs. now and has grown for 21.5 inches long. I have a lot of friends that say she is still so tiny and that they had babies that were born 9 pounds, but we think she is perfect. She has grown almost 3 lbs. since birth and has grown 3 inches. Although her weight only puts her in the 8th percentile and her height in the 15th the doctor said that we shouldn't worry about that at all, as she was little when she was born. We are just glad that she is growing and getting bigger.....even with all of the spitting up she is doing.

Speaking of spitting up, we are still battling the acid reflux. Maddie spits up after almost every meal. Sometimes a little.....but usually a lot. We have resorted to keeping her in bibs most of the day rather then changing her clothes 5-6 times. The medication that the doctor put her on has seemed to help with the pain that she has when she is spitting up, which is a blessing for both Maddie and her parents. The doctor suggested weighing her milk with cereal to help it stay down and gave us some special formula to try as well. However, we are still suspicious of a possible milk allergy as the trigger for some of the more 'powerful' reflux and looking at exploring that as well.

Along with Maddie's check up to day she had her first round of immunizations. She did fantastic....or as well as a 2 month old can when given 3 shots. However I think that the trip to the doctors and the shots wore her out because when we went to the DeSales football game that night she feel asleep about 6:30 and didn't wake up until 4:00 the next morning! She then ate for about 50 minutes and quickly fell back to sleep....along with Daddy on the couch.

Madison's first official high school football game.....dressed as a pumpkin in honor of Halloween the next day. She slept through the whole thing, including the marching band that was playing 5 feet in front of her.
The little one woke up long enough for me to get her from the front pack to the car seat and then fell asleep on the way home....only to sleep until 4:00 the next morning.

Maddie and Daddy back to sleep Saturday morning after both having a busy, tiring Friday night.

Fall Fun

The Porretta family has been busy the past few weeks. Maddie is keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes. She tried drinking out of a bottle for the first time and after a rough start seems to like it pretty well. She drinks much better there now as opposed to breast feeding where she sometimes just likes to 'hang out'. I will think that she is done after 3-4 min. of no sucking, only to take her away and have her cry and cry and cry until I let her nurse again.

Speaking of nursing we are trying to figure out what is making her so fussy and spitting up all the time. We think that it is something that I am eating in addition to the bad acid reflux she is experiencing. So for the last week I have eliminated all dairy, chocolate, spices, acidic fruits and gassy vegetables from my diet. (Oatmeal and chicken breast are my new staple foods.....sounds yummy huh?) Slowly I am trying to reintroduce various items back to see how they affect her. We have found that she gets fussier, sometimes with increased spit up...more like vomit....and sometimes diarrhea when I eat milk products. We have an appointment with the pediatrician on Fri. for her 2 month check up and we plan on talking to her about it then. We are thinking though that the problem right now might be a dairy allergy. (Maybe it was the over abundance of soft serve yogurt that I craved during pregnancy that is finally catching up to me!)

But in between all the the dirty burp clothes, loads of laundry and tears....sometimes from Maddie and sometimes from Mommy....we have had some fun times too. Here are some of the things that we have been up to this month.

We watched Daddy marching the the Otterbein Homecoming Parade and play 'Old Man River' with the Alumni Band.

Later that night we went to the 100 Years of Band concert at Otterbein to hear him play again. Mommy was worried because I usually get fussy at night and the concert was 8:00. I cried the entire way to the concert, but as soon as the music started I was happy and even danced to a few songs. However, when the music stopped at the end of the evening I was really sad......and cried the whole way home.

I looked super cute in my October outfit.


Mommy and Daddy took me to Boo at the Zoo. I dressed up as a pumpkin and lots of people told me how cute I looked. I didn't hear them though because I slept most of the time we were there.

When we were at the zoo a really scary tiger came up and roared at us. At first it really scared me until I realized it was just my cousin Carson. We had fun later riding the train together. I can't wait until I am a little bigger and we can have more fun playing together.

Bumbo Fun!

Now that Miss Maddie can hold her head up we broke out the Bumbo chair this week. We were a little unsure if she would like it, but it was a success. We love it too! It has been great to sit her in while we are eating dinner at the table or take it upstairs to sit while we are do laundry. I enjoy having her so close when she is up and alert. This way we can still talk and play while I get some things done around the house!

At first she wasn't too sure of what to think about the chair.

Then she cried.......

and now it's not so bad!

Our first official meal at the table as a family.

(Technically Maddie is ON the table, but that's OK)

One happy baby who is smiling more and more each day.

Its all worth it.

Well it has been an intesting few weeks. Just when we think we have Miss Maddie figured out, she throws us for a loop. About 2 weeks ago went to the doctor because Maddie just wasn't her self...spitting up a lot, not nursing as well, crying all the time and hardly sleeping during the day....we found out Maddie has severe acid reflux. There really isn't much we can do.....other then hope that she out grows it. The doctor did give us some medication that would help with the pain in her esophagus. It seemed to help and Maddie was acting a little more like herself....even doing well on a long weekend trip to New York to visit family.



That however was short lived. Last week the crying started back up again. During the day it wasn't as bad. She would still cry after she spit up, but it wasn't the wailing cry that it was before thanks in part to the Zantax the Dr. prescribed. However evenings were/are a different story. About 6:00 each night we would start with our crying spell. Nothing we could do would calm her down. Mike and I spent our evenings walking around the circle of the house bouncing, shhhhing, and trying to calm her down. I am so thankful to have Mike to take this journey with. It seems like when one of us is at our wit's end the other one is refreshed and ready to step in.



The constant crying lasted for about a week until we discovered our new best friend.....the vacuum cleaner! It seems to be the only thing that will calm her down. The only problem is that when you shut it off....she starts crying again. So needless to say our carpets are really clean! We have even resorted to getting out the old sweeper to run just so we don't wear our regular one out (however that just might be the way to get that DYSON that I have always wanted).



Maddie seems to be doing a little better these last few days. She still spits up A LOT after almost every meal and doesn't seems to be in as much discomfort as long as she has her medicine. She has started sleeping through the night.....once we can get her to fall to sleep that is. I don't know if it's her feeling better or us just finding the 'tricks' that work best for us. In any case, we are still trudging along. This road called parenting is filled with bumps and roadblocks and twists and turns. Occasionally though, as we are driving along we see an amazing view that reminds us of God's special gift to us and why we love our little one so much.......no matter how sleep deprived, stressed or covered in spit up we are.

One Month Check Up

We had our one month check up today. The little one is up to 8 lbs. exactly and is now 19.5 inches long. I can't believe that she has gained a pound and a half in just 5 weeks. The doctor said that she is 'beautiful'.....and we would agree. Now, if we could only get this acid reflux in line. The medicine has seemed to help her pain when spitting up....but she still spits up ALL THE TIME. So, we have resorted to having burp clothes strategically placed around the house and a bib on her after feedings!

Next month we go back and she gets her shots. Mommy is not looking forward to that one. We'll have to make sure that Daddy goes with us to that one....for moral support for us both! Because as you can see Miss Maddie is a Daddy's girl.

This weekend we had our first trip to Coshocton. What else could we have done then to go to the County Fair? We had a great time seeing the animals, visiting with family and friends....and of course sleeping. Maddie did a great job at her first fair. We can't wait to go back next year when she is older and can really start to notice things like the animals, and pumpkins and smell all the yummy fair food.

This was also the first time that many of our family members on the Wells side of the family have gotten to see Maddie. Some people like Papa Joe and Gammie Gwen have visited before but it's always nice to spend more time with them. Here are some of the people that miss Maddie got to meet this past weekend.

Uncle Jimmy got to hold me....and I didn't even cry! He is expecting his own little one in March. I can't wait to meet him/her and have fun playing over the years.

Papa Joe loved my pumpkin feet and I loved the horse barn. Maybe in a few months I'll get to sit on one of the horses.


Aunt Jacquie knew just how to calm me down. My cousing JD got to meet me for the first time too. I hope that soon he will take me for a ride with his pony Tucker.

Gammie Gwen waited so patiently to hold me all day.....but when she did I decided I was hungry. I promise I'll be better next time Gammie!

I had a great time at the fair and met so many people and saw so many new things. I didn't pet any of the animals, so for now my cow lovey will have to do.